Violations of Code of Conduct by Local Council Members to be No Longer Tolerated

• ACRC to investigate the operational status of the Code of Conduct for Local Council Members until Sep. 2024
• Intensive inspection into areas vulnerable to corruption such as private contracts of family members of local council members and private use of business operating expenses, etc. to be conducted in parallel with inspection into the execution of local public finance, including rewards for collection of local taxes and clothing expenditure budget

(30th April, 2024, ACRC)

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) conducts inspection into the operational status of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials targeting local councils and local authorities starting this month until Sep. 2024.

For the past years, the number of acts of corruption or violating the Code of Conduct for Public Officials by public institutions has decreased a lot, but some local council members or local authorities are still found to be involved in such irregularities as illicit signing of private contracts, private use of business operating expenses, fraudulent claims for business trip expenses, unlawful execution of rewards for collection of local taxes, and illegal use of clothing payments.

ACRC plans to conduct inspection into the implementational status of Code of Conduct by individual institutions from this month, targeting a total of 112 public institutions including 28 local councils (5 upper and 23 lower level councils), 17 municipal governments, and 67 basic local governments, in order to remove these deep-seated corrupt practices.

The inspection will be proceeded until Sep. this year through ary examination and field check-up for intensive investigation into private contracts of family members of local council members, private use of business promotion expenses, rewards for collection of local taxes, and unlawful execution of clothing expenditure.

In cases of public institutions found to have violated the Code of Conduct for Public Officials including personal use of public finance as a result of the inspection, ACRC plans to take necessary measures such as disciplinary measures, recovery of unlawfully executed public expenditure and institutional improvements, etc.

ACRC Vice Chairperson and Secretary General Chung Seung Yun said, “We will strive to fundamentally address the problem of waste of finances of local councils and governments through comprehensive fact-finding inspection.”